The Mumbai Indians held their nerve to seal a five wicket victory over the Deccan Chargers in a tense match at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

Rohit Sharma was the Indians hero, smashing a six off the final ball of the match to spark wild celebrations from the away team who rushed onto the pitch to celebrate with the batsman.

Faced with a victory target of 140, the Indians batting looked out of sorts thanks to some impressive bowling from Dale Steyn (3-12), but Sharma (73) lead the fight back, scoring the winning runs in the final over of the match.

The game was overshadowed though by an ugly confrontation involving Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh and umpire Johan Cloete who failed to refer a decision to the third umpire during the Chargers innings.

The incident took place in the 13th over when Kumar Sangakkara (14) dragged a delivery from Patel onto his own stumps although Cloete signalled the ball had bounced off the pads of wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik back onto the stumps.

In the unfolding confrontation, Patel and Harbhajan were both seen arguing aggressively with Cloete who was forced by the players to refer the decision to the third umpire after originally giving Sangakkara not out.

The heated argument which was witnessed on television by millions of people across India will surely result in fines at the very least for the players who crossed the line remonstrating so strongly with Cloete.

Despite the controversy the Chargers regrouped to record a total of 138-9 thanks in part to Shikhar Dhawan (41) and Christian (39) who lead the way for the home side after Sangakkara’s dismissal.

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